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Chapter 4 Part 11I
The Dependency Question
The divergent paths of freedom are often winding

Rev'd Nicholas Sykes

There is another case in this Island of a nature not preciselythe same, but very similar. The Maroons are holders of many slaves,and have never registered them; but regular returns of their numbers,names, age and sex, have been sent in, as a matter of course,each session to the Assembly. The Board has directed the valuatorsto make a separate return of these individuals, detailing thepeculiar circumstances of the case, in order that the matter maybe considered by the Central Board at home.

Lord Sligo's hesitation on the Caymanasapprenticeship issue was firmly dealt with in the Colonial Office'sreply. In a despatch dated the 16 February 1835 Lord Aberdeenconfirmed that unregistered slaves "in the Grand Caymanasas well as in Jamaica" could not be lawfully treated as apprenticedlabourers from 1 August 1834. From that day they became absolutelymanumitted, and furthermore, it is a duty incumbent on His Majesty'sGovernment to see the letter of the Abolition Act carried intofull effect.

However, Lord Aberdeen went on to explain,the Committee of Compensation did consider the Caymanas as entitledto a share of the Compensation Fund. Also, in regard to the unregisteredslaves in Jamaica belonging to the Maroons, the Committee wereinclined to hold that the regular annual returns to the Assemblyof these Maroons' slaves might be deemed, when properly authenticated,to satisfy the Commissioners' rules of entitlement of the ownersto compensation. Lord Aberdeen added what might be a significantcaveat however:

Your Lordship will observe, that the decisionof the Commissioners is general, and is capable of reference toall slaves not illegally held in slavery.

It is left for further examination elsewherewhether these instructions resulted in the Maroons receiving compensationfor their slaves, or whether it was withheld, for while it wasdeemed scarcely questionable that the Caymanas slaves were "notillegally held" there would appear to be more room for doubtin the case of the slaves of the Maroons.

Left also is the question of how and whenany former slaves of the Maroons were declared to be absolutelyand unconditionally free, beyond the known fact that after hisCaymanas visit and announcement the Marquess of Sligo wrote tothe Colonial Office of his preparations to make an announcementto the unregistered Maroon apprentices similar to the one madeto those in the Caymanas. By that time he had already sent lettersto the different Superintendents of Maroons, to the Custodes andto the Special Magistrates stationed in the neighbourhood of eachMaroon Station.

The Governor after preparing for possibletrouble in the Caymanas by sending ahead a detachment of men ofthe West India Regiment and personally travelling there to readthe necessary Proclamation, was to be found on 2 May, 1835 inhis ship's cabin with the Custos Mr. Drayton and some of the leadinginhabitants thus carrying out the "letter of the AbolitionAct":-

Whereas the situation of the inhabitantsof the Grand Caymanas having engaged the particular attentionof His Majesty's Government, more especially as to the effectthe recent changes under the laws of the Imperial Parliament haveupon the structure of society in those Islands belonging to GreatBritain, where slavery formerly existed; and the opinion of thelaw officers of the Crown having been obtained; I have receivedHis Majesty's commands forthwith to communicate the decision atwhich they have arrived upon the question.

The Slavery Abolition Act having declaredthat all persons of the age of six or upwards, who, on or beforethe first of August 1834, had been duly registered as slaves,should become and be apprenticed labourers, and such registrationnot having been adopted as respects the Islands of the Caymanas,previous to the passing thereof, such unregistered slaves havein consequence become entitled to the unqualified enjoyment oftheir personal freedom: And whereas it is incumbent on His Majesty'sGovernment to see the letter of the Slavery Abolition Act carriedinto full effect, I do hereby, under the directions of His Majesty'sGovernment, declare and make known, that all such unregisteredslaves at the Islands of the Caymanas, have become absolutelymanumitted, and can no longer be lawfully treated as apprenticedlabourers.

... And I have the satisfaction in the meantime to make known that the Commissioners for Compensation inEngland consider the Caymanas as an appendage to Jamaica, andentitled to share in the compensation fund, according to the interestsof the respective owners in those Islands.

Here is a good example of the relationshipbetween the Caymanas and Jamaica being considered in some wayas a dependant one, while at the same time the course of historyfrom 1831 up to 1863 shows definitively and inexorably that whateverdependant relation might be considered by observers and participantsto exist, Cayman was "not connected with Jamaica by legalenactments". Indeed the lawmakers of Jamaica consideredthe Caymanas to be a separate dependency of the Crown.

The end of apprenticeship was effected inthe Caymanas not altogether without upsets and misunderstandings.However, these were miniscule compared with the totally differentcourse of events during the last three years of apprenticeshipin Jamaica, where a protesting Assembly was only forced by thegeneral swell of opinion in England about its horrors to givein; and so it was that in Jamaica on the 1st August 1838 fullfreedom came to all.

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